Signature · about 2 h 30 min, with overlapping rests · Serves 4
Salmon sorrentinos “Patagonia in Green Silk”
The Buenos Aires sorrentino (large, round stuffed pasta), round and generous, reread with Patagonian DNA: fresh egg pasta with a creamy filling of salmon and ricotta, glazed in a butter sauce. The aim is an elegant, light pasta dish, with the fish as the protagonist and the freshness of lemon and herbs.
The twist is in each layer. The dough is tinted and perfumed with a spinach and dill chlorophyll, which goes very well with the salmon. The filling combines fresh and smoked salmon for depth, bound with ricotta, mascarpone, lemon, capers and brown butter. The sauce is a vermouth beurre blanc mounted over a short fumet of the toasted bones, which uses the whole fish and adds herbal notes. A crisp salmon skin, a green chive oil and dill microgreens give contrast of texture and color.
Special equipment: pasta machine; blender; 7–8 cm round cutter
Ingredients
Green dough
- 40 g leaves for the chlorophyll: 70% spinach and 30% dill
- 300 g 00 flour
- 60 g fine wheat semolina
- 4 egg yolks (about 80 g)
- 1 egg (about 50 g)
- 10 g mild olive oil
- 6 g fine salt
Filling
- 220 g fresh skinless, boneless salmon
- 70 g smoked salmon
- 180 g well-drained ricotta
- 40 g mascarpone
- Zest of 1 lemon and 10 g lemon juice
- 15 g desalted capers, chopped
- 2 tablespoons chopped chives
- 25 g butter, for the brown butter
- 4–5 g salt and white pepper
- 1 tablespoon egg white
- 2–3 tablespoons fine panko, only if needed
Short salmon fumet
- 400 g cleaned salmon bones and head
- 1 medium onion
- ½ fennel bulb
- 1 celery stalk
- 10 g butter
- 120 ml dry white vermouth
- 900 ml cold water
- 6 black peppercorns
- Salt
Vermouth beurre blanc
- 1 small shallot, finely chopped
- 40 ml dry white wine
- 10 ml white wine vinegar
- 180 ml fumet
- 120 g cold butter, in cubes
- 20 ml heavy cream, optional
- Fine salt, white pepper and 3–4 drops of lemon juice
Green chive oil
- 30 g chives
- 120 ml grapeseed or sunflower oil
- A pinch of salt
Crisp salmon skin
- 1 large strip of cleaned salmon skin
- Fine salt
Assembly and cooking
- Flour, for the tray
- Plenty of water and 10 g of salt per liter
Finishing
- Dill microgreens
- Finely grated lemon zest
- Flaky salt
Method
Green dough
- Chlorophyll. Blanch the spinach and dill leaves 45–60 seconds, move them right away to ice water, drain and blend them with 2–3 tablespoons of ice water. Strain through a fine mesh, squeeze and reserve 25 g of chlorophyll.
- Kneading. Mix the flour, semolina and salt and form a well. Beat the yolks and egg with the chlorophyll and oil, pour into the center and combine to a homogeneous dough. Knead 8–10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Wrap and rest 45–60 minutes at room temperature.
Filling
- Brown butter. Cook the butter until it takes on a hazelnut tone and let it cool.
- Mixing. Mix the ricotta, mascarpone, lemon zest and juice; add the capers and chives. Cut half of the fresh salmon into brunoise and finely chop the other half, and add it along with the smoked. Add the brown butter and season with salt and white pepper. If the filling is too wet, add a little panko. Bind with the egg white and refrigerate 30 minutes.
Short salmon fumet
- Base. Cut the onion, fennel and celery and sweat them with the butter about 5 minutes. Add the previously washed bones and head and cook 3 minutes. Deglaze with the vermouth and reduce almost dry.
- Cooking. Add the cold water and peppercorns and cook gently 20 minutes, without a hard boil, skimming the foam. Strain without pressing the solids and salt lightly.
Vermouth beurre blanc
- Reduction. Reduce the shallot with the wine and vinegar to a third. Add 180 ml of fumet and reduce by half. Remove from the heat.
- Mounting. Whisk in the cold butter in cubes, and add the cream if you want more stability. Adjust with salt, white pepper and a few drops of lemon. Keep the sauce between 60 and 65 °C (140–149 °F): it must not boil again once mounted, because the emulsion splits.
Green chive oil
- Blending. Scald the chives 10 seconds, move them to ice water, drain and dry them. Blend with the oil 2–3 minutes, gently heat to about 60 °C (140 °F), strain with a fine filter and add a pinch of salt.
Crisp salmon skin
- Baking. Remove the bits of fat from the skin and dry it completely. Salt it lightly, put it between two sheets of parchment paper or silicone and bake at 150 °C (300 °F) for 20–25 minutes. Let cool and break into irregular pieces.
Assembly and cooking
- Assembly. Roll the dough to 1.1–1.2 mm and cut discs of 7–8 cm. Put 25–28 g of filling on each disc, lightly moisten the edges and cover with another disc. Press around the filling to push out the air, seal and trim with a ring. Rest 10 minutes on a lightly floured tray.
- Cooking. Boil plenty of water with 10 g of salt per liter and cook the sorrentinos 3½–4½ minutes from when they begin to float. Carefully remove them with a slotted spoon and gently toss with a little beurre blanc.
Finishing
- At serving. Have at hand the dill microgreens, the lemon for zesting and the flaky salt.
The dish
Use wide plates in black ceramic or stone. Put a base of beurre blanc and arrange 3 sorrentinos in a triangle, lightly coated with more sauce. Distribute drops of green chive oil around and rest 2–3 pieces of crisp skin on the pasta for height. Finish with dill microgreens, fine lemon zest and a few crystals of flaky salt, and serve at once. Final look: green, glossy pasta on an ivory sauce, intense green drops, the golden, brittle skin as volume, and the yellow of the lemon as the only warm note.
Key points
- Squeeze the chlorophyll well and measure 25 g: more liquid softens the dough.
- Adjust the moisture of the filling with panko before binding it with the white; a watery filling breaks the pasta.
- Push out all the air when closing each sorrentino, pressing around the filling.
- Cook the fumet without a hard boil and strain it without pressing, so it stays clean.
- Do not boil the beurre blanc once the butter is in, because the emulsion splits.
Pairing
A Patagonian Chardonnay with partial oak aging and good acidity, whose texture goes with the beurre blanc and the salmon. A Brut Nature sparkling wine also works, cleansing the palate and balancing the richness, or, as a light red option, a Patagonian Pinot Noir served at 14–15 °C (57–59 °F).
Notes
- Yield to confirm: the source indicates 12 sorrentinos, 3 per plate, with 25–28 g of filling each, but the full filling weighs about 560 g and is enough for about 20 pieces of that size. In the first test, record how many result and whether it is better to enlarge the portions or reduce the filling.